Constellations

The Constellations of Stars

Gaze into the sky at night, preferably away from the city lights, and you will see a myriad of stars. Some are bright, some tiny pinpricks, many are clustered together and if you have a great imagination, they seem to form shapes. If you are at a loss, don't worry, over the past 6000 years, poets, romantics and astronomers have named these shapes for us, creating constellations. A constellation is a group of five to twenty stars combined into a single unit. These groups were often named after figures in ancient mythology, some after Zodiac signs and others after animals. The divisions began already in the Neolithic Age, in ancient times this was then intensified. Seen from Earth, these stars, which have been grouped into a constellation, seem to be close together. But this appearance is deceptive, because sometimes they are closer to our sun than the other stars of their own constellation.

Number of Constellations

In order to create some sort of structure in the skies, in the early 1920's the International Astronomical Union decided upon 88 constellations that would be officially recognized by all astronomers. The breakdown consists of 17 human or mythological characters, 29 inanimate objects and 42 animals. An official name was given, as well a three letter abbreviation that corresponds to the actual name. So for example, there is AQR for Aquarius the Zodiac sign or CHA for Chameleon the animal.